page_title: Umbanda
section_title: Historical background
hierarchical_section_title: Umbanda / History / Historical background
caption_attribution_description: English: Zélio Fernandino de Moraes (10 April 1891– 3 October 1975) was a Brazilian medium who is considered the founder of the Umbanda Branca religion
context_page_description: Umbanda is a syncretic Afro-Brazilian religion that blends African traditions with Roman Catholicism, Spiritism, and Indigenous American beliefs. Although some of its beliefs and most of its practices existed in the late 19th century in almost all Brazil, it is assumed that Umbanda originated in Niterói and surrounding areas in the early 20th century, mainly due to the work of a psychic, Zélio Fernandino de Moraes, who practiced Umbanda among the poor Afro-Brazilian slave descendants. Since then, Umbanda has spread across mainly southern Brazil and neighboring countries like Argentina and Uruguay.
  Umbanda has many branches, each one with a different set of beliefs and practices. Some common beliefs are the existence of a Supreme Creator known as Olodumare.
context_section_description: Umbanda originated in South America and developed in the Portuguese Empire. In the late-19th century, many Brazilian scholars criticized the African-Brazilian religions, claiming they were primitive and hindered modernization. At the same time, Allan Kardec's Spiritism, a development of spiritualism creeds, was increasingly accepted by the Brazilian urban middle/upper-class with followers since 1865. Since that Spiritism came from Paris, with the upper classes, there was no integration with the lower classes. The kardecists – followers of the Spiritism – were mainly middle-class people of European descent, many of them pursuing military and professional careers. They were deeply influenced by Auguste Comte's philosophy, Positivism, that aimed to join religion and science and to help the development of society to a higher level.
caption: Zélio de Moraes
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